Most historians of science and medicine agree that medical interest in genetics intensified after 1930, and interest in the relationship of radiation damage and genetics continued and expanded after World War II. Moreover, they maintain that the synthesis and convergence of human genetics and cytological techniques in European centers resulted in their dissemination to centers in the United States, resulting in a new field of expertise focused on medicine and clinical research, known as cytogenetics. In this article, we broaden the scope of the inquiry by showing how the early histories of cytogenetics in Canada and Mexico unfolded against strikingly different backgrounds in clinical research and the delivery of health care. We thus argue that the field of cytogenetics did not emerge in a straightforward manner and develop in the same way in all countries. The article provides a brief background to the history of human cytogenetics, and then outlines key developments related to the early adoption of cytogenetics in Canada and Mexico. Conclusions are then drawn using comparisons of the different ways in which local determinants affected adoption. We then propose directions for future study focused on the ways in which circuits of practices, collaborative research, and transfers of knowledge have shaped how cytogenetics has come to be organised in medicine around the world.
Keywords: Cytogenetics; Entangled histories; Karyotyping; Medical genetics; Transnational perspectives on history.
Copyright © 2018. Published by Elsevier Ltd.